Today the question was asked, “How do you spell monsoon?” :o)

Today the question was asked, “How do you spell monsoon?” :o)

All is well, no worries! Here is a little about our adventurous day. We began with devotion/prayer that quoted I Corinthians 13:4 –13. This was a powerful start and we were out the door by 7:15 am. We drove to Cite Soliel to visit Pastor Leon. He is the pastor of 5 locations in the most oppressed areas in the PAP (Port au Prince) area. His church has 3 priorities:
1. a church building for evangelism
2. school to promote education
3. medical clinic

We visited 3 locations. Two of the locations are very well developed “compounds” containing all three of the above priorities. Above and beyond they also included water purification, power generators/solar panels, multiple classrooms for each grade, and facilities to host incoming medical teams. The “main location” also had dorm like facilities to house volunteers.

The other location was called Re-Patriot. The best way to describe this location is an under-developed subdivision with a structure every block or so. Funny thing, most of Haiti does not have street signs, but this area was clearly marked. The church was completely destroyed by the earthquake. The congregation is made up of about 600 members that used their church up to 4 days a week and are currently meeting in a tent. (Incidentally, the roof of the tent is currently rotting after just 3 months) New construction is underway to build the security wall around the property. Another building (classrooms for school) was damaged beyond repair on this property.

Pastor Leon is a very dynamic man who has accomplished a lot in his last 22 years with these churches. A favorite quote of the day, “If you want to get something done, ask someone who is busy.” ~ Pastor Leon

From here we headed out to meet a community leader named Pastor Runner. He originally founded a school in Route Nef with his wife. The Restavek Foundation came along side of Runner to help support the school and keep it open for the last 3 years. After the quake this was one of the first schools to reopen. Part of the school was heavily damaged, but the rebuild is almost complete. About 125 children attend school, and a large percentage are restaveks. Joan introduced us as members of the community that helped provide food after the earthquake (the Crossroads community). Pastor Runner expressed his deep thanks and offered to pray for us. This time of prayer was touching and we offered to pray for him and his community as well. God was present during our time together.

For lunch we stopped at a restaurant that didn’t have anything available from the menu. (Not quite, but that is what it felt like)

After lunch we stopped by the transition home to tour/visit and meet some of the Restavek staff. We picked up Dejean and Shanida (don’t copy our spelling, it’s probably wrong) headed out to Fontamara to see the literacy program. Before we tell you about the program, we should probably tell you about the drive. It was about 1.5 hours up the side of a mountain with a large stream running along side the “road”. (More like a sort of road/dirt pile with large gullies and lots of people walking) The program serves about 50 people (mostly women with about 4 men) ages 27 – 85 to teach them to read/write Creole.

As soon as we arrived and started the program the clouds darkened, sprinkles began. Then rain came down sideways – like a monsoon. Our team gathered next to a concrete wall with a tarp using David as an anchor for the tarp. While we waited out the storm, we found out a tree fell in front of our parked car. No worries, a local went to get his machete. Seriously. :o) He chopped it up and Ashley and Dejean tossed the branches into the river. Pigs came and ate the fresh leaves. We definitely experienced a Haitian rainstorm first hand.

After the rain, our drive home consisted of running into a traffic jam that included a UN truck stuck on the side of the road blocking traffic. The fearless men in our group (ALL the men) jumped out to help the UN truck – after all traffic wasn’t moving anyway. (Bet you haven’t pushed a UN truck before, huh?) After Ray finally got out to direct traffic we were able to move through the congestion and get home.

What will tomorrow bring? Stay tuned we are excited!